Max Verstappen described his comeback as “incredible” after he claimed victory at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Dutchman would pass Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri Bottas and Charles Leclerc during the second half of the race to move up from fourth to first and take a second straight win at the Red Bull Ring.
His final pass on the Ferrari is under investigation, however, as contact with the front wheels bumped the Monegasque off the track but Verstappen is confident everything was within the limits.
“It’s hard racing otherwise we have to stay at home,” he told Sky Sports’ Martin Brundle in parc ferme. “If those things are not allowed in racing, what is the point of being in F1?”
Unsurprisingly, Leclerc had a different view, pointing to the lap before when he and Max had a drag race to Turn 4.
“On the incident I’ll let the stewards decide but for me, it was pretty clear in the car – I don’t know how it looked like from the outside,” he said.
“I was on the outside, like the lap before, the lap before was completely fine.
“He left the space for a car width on the exit of the corner but he didn’t on the other lap so we touched and I had to go wide, and then obviously I didn’t have any chance to pass back so it’s a shame.”
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For Verstappen, however, should his win be confirmed, it was the result of a comeback which he feared wasn’t possible after dropping from second to seventh by Turn 1.
“After that start, I thought the race was over, but we just kept pushing hard,” he said.
“The pace was actually not too bad, I got a big flat spot on my first tyre. After the pitstop, we were flying, you could see on the straight we had good pace as well.
“So we could make a pass, of course extremely happy for the whole team, and also for Honda, we just started working together this year. To win here is incredible.”
